For access to natural light, a room may be installed with adjustable skylight fixtures (herein “an adjustable skylight”). The adjustable skylight may be configured to be opened or closed to vary the amount of natural light made available in the room. For example, a user may close the skylight during presentations to limit natural light in the room and later open the adjustable skylight to allow natural light into the room. The adjustable skylight may be coupled to a motor to control the opening or closing of the adjustable skylight. The end user may control the position of the adjustable skylight using buttons or switches at a user panel that provide input to the motor.
In addition to the adjustable skylight, the room may be installed with lighting fixtures that may have dimming capability to provide artificial lighting to the room. The lighting fixtures may be coupled to a lighting controller that aids a user to switch on, switch off, and/or dim the artificial lighting in the room from a lighting control panel.
Conventional technology may provide two separate sets of controllers to control the operations of the adjustable skylight and the lighting fixtures respectively. In addition, the two separate sets of controllers may not be directly compatible with each other, i.e., additional hardware or circuitry may be needed to couple the two controllers for a unified operation.
Further, even if the two separate sets of controllers are compatible, the two separate sets of controllers may not operate in conjunction with each other. For example, when the adjustable skylight is open and the room is well-lit by the natural light, the artificial lighting may need to be switched off automatically or dimmed to maximize energy conservation and to maintain a preset amount of lighting in the room to a balanced level. Conventional technology may require complex hardware and software installation procedures to synchronize the operation of both the skylight controller and the lighting controller.
The complex installation procedures may require highly skilled technicians and can be cost-intensive and time consuming. Further, having to purchase multiple controller units for different light setting, and additional hardware to integrate them may be cost intensive in terms of material cost. Further, conventional technology may include two separate user control panels, one for controlling the natural light and the other for controlling the artificial light. The two separate user control panels may each have numerous settings which may complicate their use because the end user may have to separately adjust the settings on each control panel and learn the different modes of operation available on each of the control panel. Such complicated use may provide an unpleasant user experience. Thus, there is a need for an integrated lighting load and skylight control technology to overcome the shortcomings of the conventional technology.